100 Years Ago in The Record: War-torn Mexico on brink of peace

Friday, July 17, 1914. While tensions in Europe are slowly increasing, war-torn Mexico may be on the brink of peace, The Record reports.

The main story on our evening edition’s front page reports that interim president Francisco Carbajal has offered to yield power to opposition leader Venustiano Carranza. Carbajal took power following the resignation of Victoriano Huerta earlier this week. Huerta took power in a coup d’etat in February 1913. Carranza has been the political leader of the uprising against the Huerta regime.

The U.S. became embroiled in the Mexican conflict this spring after the Huerta government briefly detained American sailors in Tampico. Dissatisfied with Huerta’s apology, American forces occupied the port city of Vera Cruz. The administration of President Woodrow Wilson has insisted on Huerta’s resignation as a precondition for peace in Mexico.

Carranza now has two hurdles to jump before he wins international recognition as Mexico’s leader. First, he must meet Carbajal’s condition of an amnesty for Huerta’s supporters. Internationally, recognition of Carranza may depend on whether he honors or repudiates the Huerta regime’s debts to foreign interests.

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“It may be questioned whether any Mexican of recent times has had the opportunity presented him that is knocking to-day at the door of Venustiano Carranza,” our paper editorializes. Accepting Carbajal’s request for amnesty should be an easy call for Carranza, but our writer recognizes the wild card in the diplomatic game: Pancho Villa, the general loyal to Carranza who has grown famous, or infamous, for his military exploits and alleged atrocities during the uprising.

Villa has vowed to kill Huerta and members of Huerta’s cabinet if his army finds them. Carranza may doubt his ability to keep Villa on a leash, but our writer suggests that he could have American help if he wants it.

“If Villa objected [to amnesty], General Carranza could feel that his magnanimous conduct would assure him moral backing in America and, in the event of need, such physical aid as the soldiery at Vera Cruz might be called upon to give.”

Huerta’s resignation and Carbajal’s apparent surrender are being portrayed as victories for President Wilson’s Mexican policy of “watchful waiting.” The question now, our paper asks in a separate editorial, is whether Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan can help stabilize Mexico after easing the dictator’s exit.

“To secure the establishment of a constitutionalist government without reprisals of the kind popular with Villa would be a great triumph for President Wilson,” our writer opines. However, “’Watchful waiting’ still has much to accomplish before it can demand and receive a verdict of complete virtue and efficiency.”